The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Board Games] POST IN THE NEW THREAD!
MNC Dover
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
Hey there! This thread is about board games. Let me tell you about them!
A different kind of board game is on the rise. Invading pop culture. Invading Target, Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us. Invading Penny Arcade itself.
There are brand-new games about dying in the desert:
or 20-year old card games getting new life:
or even family-friendly train games that stir something black in the soul:
This thread exists to convey one simple message: board games have come a long way since Monopoly and Risk.
Perhaps you’re looking for something for your lunch hour.
Perhaps you’re looking for something to play when you’re just hanging out with friends.
Perhaps you’re looking for something like chess but more fun for newcomers.
Perhaps you’re looking for an all-day simulation of the asymmetrical struggles of Europe during the Protestant Reformation.
No problem, gotcha covered. So without further ado, let me attempt to give you a barely-sketched outline of what is possible in cardboard, wood and plastic.
Oh, and watch out for that pig-flooping.
GREAT GAMES FOR JUST ABOUT ANYONE (especially those new to games):
Ticket to Ride
Quite possibly one of the best entry-level games. Draw cards into your hands, claim a route between two cities with your train cars by laying down same-color cards that match a route on the board. Simple, intuitive. Kids can grasp it, adults can play it more cut-throat and get into deeper strategies. Many versions have been made; they are pretty much all great, but check to see how many people can play. There’s also plenty of expansion maps, including a highly-rated Asia map for team play up to 6.
Trains
Trains, while having a similar theme to Ticket to Ride, is almost entirely different! Trains is a deck builder. That's not to say it's like Magic: the Gathering, but instead you build your deck during the game! Furthermore, there's a board you'll be playing on, trying to connect routes and build stations and block your opponents from doing the same. However, beware Waste! You generate waste when you build things and it clogs up your hand, taking up the space of more useful cards.
Carcassonne
Another older game, which has aged well because of its short length and wide appeal. Pick up a tile, add it to the tiles already placed so that you match the road, castle, or field. You may optionally “claim” a road, castle, or field with one of your followers or “meeples”, which gives you points. A great, quick game for pretty much all ages, but it is especially good for a younger crowd.
Lords of Waterdeep
Newer game, but it has really made a splash. It’s a fairly light worker-placement euro that non-gamers (or minimal-gamers) really seem to enjoy. The “worker-placement” part is themed up as sending knights and wizards off to accomplish quests, and there’s even a bit of back-stabbery against the other players.
Forbidden Desert
An amazing little cooperative game that starts with formula that made Forbidden Island and Pandemic so popular, and then develops and improves that formula into something magical. You must explore and excavate tiles to find pieces of an airship, while a sandstorm moves the tiles around and dumps sand everywhere. Everybody has their own special ability, and they work together in amazing ways. Get all the parts, find the launch pad, GET TO DA CHOPPA, and escape to safety. But you'll probably die of thirst first. Great components, too.
Okay, so I'm done with those gateway games! What's everyone really into nowadays?
TimFiji's picks:
Shadowfire's pick:
Fairchild's pick:
Zombie Hero's pick:
Jonbob's pick:
The old OP has a ton of recommendations too!
A different kind of board game is on the rise. Invading pop culture. Invading Target, Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us. Invading Penny Arcade itself.
There are brand-new games about dying in the desert:
This thread exists to convey one simple message: board games have come a long way since Monopoly and Risk.
Perhaps you’re looking for something for your lunch hour.
Perhaps you’re looking for something to play when you’re just hanging out with friends.
Perhaps you’re looking for something like chess but more fun for newcomers.
Perhaps you’re looking for an all-day simulation of the asymmetrical struggles of Europe during the Protestant Reformation.
No problem, gotcha covered. So without further ado, let me attempt to give you a barely-sketched outline of what is possible in cardboard, wood and plastic.
Oh, and watch out for that pig-flooping.
GREAT GAMES FOR JUST ABOUT ANYONE (especially those new to games):
Ticket to Ride
Quite possibly one of the best entry-level games. Draw cards into your hands, claim a route between two cities with your train cars by laying down same-color cards that match a route on the board. Simple, intuitive. Kids can grasp it, adults can play it more cut-throat and get into deeper strategies. Many versions have been made; they are pretty much all great, but check to see how many people can play. There’s also plenty of expansion maps, including a highly-rated Asia map for team play up to 6.
Trains
Trains, while having a similar theme to Ticket to Ride, is almost entirely different! Trains is a deck builder. That's not to say it's like Magic: the Gathering, but instead you build your deck during the game! Furthermore, there's a board you'll be playing on, trying to connect routes and build stations and block your opponents from doing the same. However, beware Waste! You generate waste when you build things and it clogs up your hand, taking up the space of more useful cards.
Carcassonne
Another older game, which has aged well because of its short length and wide appeal. Pick up a tile, add it to the tiles already placed so that you match the road, castle, or field. You may optionally “claim” a road, castle, or field with one of your followers or “meeples”, which gives you points. A great, quick game for pretty much all ages, but it is especially good for a younger crowd.
Lords of Waterdeep
Newer game, but it has really made a splash. It’s a fairly light worker-placement euro that non-gamers (or minimal-gamers) really seem to enjoy. The “worker-placement” part is themed up as sending knights and wizards off to accomplish quests, and there’s even a bit of back-stabbery against the other players.
Forbidden Desert
An amazing little cooperative game that starts with formula that made Forbidden Island and Pandemic so popular, and then develops and improves that formula into something magical. You must explore and excavate tiles to find pieces of an airship, while a sandstorm moves the tiles around and dumps sand everywhere. Everybody has their own special ability, and they work together in amazing ways. Get all the parts, find the launch pad, GET TO DA CHOPPA, and escape to safety. But you'll probably die of thirst first. Great components, too.
Okay, so I'm done with those gateway games! What's everyone really into nowadays?
TimFiji's picks:
Captain Sonar
Scythe
Scythe
Shadowfire's pick:
Red Dragon Inn
Adventurers have downtime too, and after their latest dungeon dive, they retire to the Red Dragon Inn to brag about their travels, flex their muscles, gamble, and drink.
Each character is a little different, with some like Fiona whittling away at others' fortitude and keeping from getting drunk, or Gerki being a great gambler. The wizard Zot and his familiar Pooki add a bit of unpredictability to the mix since Pooki's mood can change. The characters have their own decks, and you use those to be the last adventurer standing, because everyone else is too drunk, too injured, or broke! There are five volumes of Red Dragon Inn available, all with different characters, plus individual packs with new characters, and each one can interact with the other. New characters have included Pooki as a separate character, the summoner Zariah, and the best character of all time: Wizgille, the Gnome Artificer.
I adore this game. Everyone should own at least two editions of it.
Adventurers have downtime too, and after their latest dungeon dive, they retire to the Red Dragon Inn to brag about their travels, flex their muscles, gamble, and drink.
Each character is a little different, with some like Fiona whittling away at others' fortitude and keeping from getting drunk, or Gerki being a great gambler. The wizard Zot and his familiar Pooki add a bit of unpredictability to the mix since Pooki's mood can change. The characters have their own decks, and you use those to be the last adventurer standing, because everyone else is too drunk, too injured, or broke! There are five volumes of Red Dragon Inn available, all with different characters, plus individual packs with new characters, and each one can interact with the other. New characters have included Pooki as a separate character, the summoner Zariah, and the best character of all time: Wizgille, the Gnome Artificer.
I adore this game. Everyone should own at least two editions of it.
Fairchild's pick:
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition
Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition
Zombie Hero's pick:
Mysterium
Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Jonbob's pick:
Fantastic new games keep coming out! For example, check out Potion Explosion.
This is a short game of collecting ingredients to brew potions, which give you points as well as special abilities you can use if you drink them. That's fun by itself, but the magic comes in the way you collect those ingredients.
There's this nifty cardboard dispenser you pour a bunch of marbles into, and they fill the columns with a satisfying clacking sound. Then, when you take an ingredient, new marbles will roll down into place, and if you cause like colors to collide, you get those too. Causing these chain reactions is the heart of the game, and it's extremely clever and fun.
I love little, simple games that are easy to teach. That's why it's so notable that I love Vast, which is the opposite of these things.
Vast is a game of asymmetry, which is handily summarized in the following simple diagram:
In Vast, each player takes on a role with its own rules, its own goals, and its own mechanisms. Turn structure for one player bears no resemblance to the turn structure for the next. The Knight is playing a typical RPG, exploring a cave, completing sidequests, gaining experience, and trying to slay the dragon. The Goblins, on the other hand, are controlling a bunch of moving parts, swarming and darting through the darkness and trying to chip away at the Knight. The Cave player is trying to misdirect and slow down other players long enough to collapse in, killing everyone. And so on! It's a marvel that it works at all.
But new games aren't everything! Classics return to the table every week. For example, I'm enamored of Edel, Stein & Reich, an older game of bluffing and brinksmanship.
This is a simultaneous action selection game. I love games like this, because everyone is always involved! Players try to collect majorities in four different colors of gems by deciding what action to take: claim gems, claim cash, claim a special action card, and so forth. If nobody else chose what you did, then great! You get to take that action. If three or more chose it, nobody gets to do it. But if two people chose it, they have to negotiate over which one gets to do it, and how the other one gets compensated. Simple, clean, cutthroat, and fun.
This is a short game of collecting ingredients to brew potions, which give you points as well as special abilities you can use if you drink them. That's fun by itself, but the magic comes in the way you collect those ingredients.
There's this nifty cardboard dispenser you pour a bunch of marbles into, and they fill the columns with a satisfying clacking sound. Then, when you take an ingredient, new marbles will roll down into place, and if you cause like colors to collide, you get those too. Causing these chain reactions is the heart of the game, and it's extremely clever and fun.
I love little, simple games that are easy to teach. That's why it's so notable that I love Vast, which is the opposite of these things.
Vast is a game of asymmetry, which is handily summarized in the following simple diagram:
In Vast, each player takes on a role with its own rules, its own goals, and its own mechanisms. Turn structure for one player bears no resemblance to the turn structure for the next. The Knight is playing a typical RPG, exploring a cave, completing sidequests, gaining experience, and trying to slay the dragon. The Goblins, on the other hand, are controlling a bunch of moving parts, swarming and darting through the darkness and trying to chip away at the Knight. The Cave player is trying to misdirect and slow down other players long enough to collapse in, killing everyone. And so on! It's a marvel that it works at all.
But new games aren't everything! Classics return to the table every week. For example, I'm enamored of Edel, Stein & Reich, an older game of bluffing and brinksmanship.
This is a simultaneous action selection game. I love games like this, because everyone is always involved! Players try to collect majorities in four different colors of gems by deciding what action to take: claim gems, claim cash, claim a special action card, and so forth. If nobody else chose what you did, then great! You get to take that action. If three or more chose it, nobody gets to do it. But if two people chose it, they have to negotiate over which one gets to do it, and how the other one gets compensated. Simple, clean, cutthroat, and fun.
The old OP has a ton of recommendations too!
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
MNC Dover on
+3
Posts
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
It's like Tales of the Arabian Nights but with an actual worker placement game attached
Red Dragon Inn
Adventurers have downtime too, and after their latest dungeon dive, they retire to the Red Dragon Inn to brag about their travels, flex their muscles, gamble, and drink.
Each character is a little different, with some like Fiona whittling away at others' fortitude and keeping from getting drunk, or Gerki being a great gambler. The wizard Zot and his familiar Pooki add a bit of unpredictability to the mix since Pooki's mood can change. The characters have their own decks, and you use those to be the last adventurer standing, because everyone else is too drunk, too injured, or broke! There are five volumes of Red Dragon Inn available, all with different characters, plus individual packs with new characters, and each one can interact with the other. New characters have included Pooki as a separate character, the summoner Zariah, and the best character of all time: Wizgille, the Gnome Artificer.
I adore this game. Everyone should own at least two editions of it.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
I want it NOW
Every Labor Day my friends hold a get-together to play board games, drink alcohol (I was out of that this year, unfortunately
Saturday:
We broke out Burgle Bros, which I had picked up at GenCon, and tried a random Office game with four players. We had two of the Loots and had almost found the code for the third, but the guard had a straight hallway to pick off one of the players who was frantically running away.
I played Roll for the Galaxy twice, winning the first time, which was the first time I'd ever played it. I really liked this game, far more than Tiny Epic Galaxies, because even though there can be a fair amount of AP, it's personal AP and doesn't necessarily bog down everyone else's game.
Once people had been suitably fed and liquored up, we pulled out Concept for 12 people, which went great except that one person was being far too concerned about scoring instead of just shouting out ideas. Much laughter was had.
We ended the night with a game of Dragon and Flagon, the Red November-meets-Colt Express barroom brawl. I eked out a win in a tiebreaker when I basically sacrificed my last turn to spin around and look away from the Paladin, because I knew he was going to use his blinding attack again (and he did!). Had I not done that, he would have taken the lead right at the end.
Sunday
This day's turnout was smaller, and we started the afternoon with a rousing game of Corrupted Kingdoms. There was some confusion on scoring at the end brought on by the announcement of alcoholic milkshakes, but once we all had the concept down we agreed that it should be played again at a later point (it wasn't).
Following that, we sat down for some Scythe. I'd played three times before and lost badly each time, but in this game I was able to steal away a smooth win as the non-violent Slovenians. The biggest turnover was when the overly-aggressive Saxon player dashed through a tunnel to attack me with two mechs, failing to realize that I had just built the mech that allowed me to steal one of his only two Command Cards when attacked. The ensuing win earned me a star and made my victory ever the sweeter, because my engine would have needed me to go at least two more turns to get my other final objectives out. The pro strategy so far is to do a Population Bomb by parking two guys on a village, then Producing as fast as possible to leap up to 8 workers.
From a new star to a classic: Lords of Waterdeep. There was lots of backstabbing going on, but I pulled out a win, 140 to 132 to <waves hand dismissively>.
For the end of the mini-con, I was introduced to Battlestar Galactica, which we picked up relatively easily. I was far too helpful in the beginning as Doc Cottle, and when I was given a Cylon card at the midgame I wasn't able to flip at a good enough time to stop the final prep - a human in the sickbay gave an XO to another player who was able to repair the FTL controls and carry out the last jump before I got my crisis out. Thus ended my winning streak for the day.
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
Looking to offload Zing!, Tigris & Euphrtes, and maybe 51st State. I still have high hopes for the latter but finding anybody to play it with is a bit of a challenge.
Also, my copy of Lost Cities (cads, not board) has been MIA for eighteen months and two apartments. We're declaring it a loss.
3DS: 0447-9966-6178
Specifically, it's like a bad, boring version of Tales with a bad, boring worker placement game sort of in the general vicinity. As a big fan of Tales-like games and a general fan of innovative worker placement games, I strongly recommend against it.
--
On a happier note, I introduced my family to Pandemic last night, and it went pretty well! Casual inquiries suggest they are receptive to some sort of "legacy" here. It seems my scheming will come to full fruition this Christmas.
Number One is easy-- SENTINELS OF THE MULTIVERSE.
Number Two-- MANSIONS OF MADNESS, 2nd edition
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Step 1 Accuse everyone else of being a Cylon.
Step 2 ???
Step 3 Profit
Indeed.
I would have to recommend 3 for right now though, as I'm also really enjoying Council of Blackthorn.
Step 1: Pick Tigh.
Step 2: Proceed as normal until someone acts remotely suspicious. Draw hands as indicated on your cards, distribute titles following the guide, etc.
Step 3: Brig whoever acts remotely suspicious. Brig whoever disagrees with you. Brig, brig, briggity brig brig brig.
Step 4: Remind the Cylons they can kill themselves to get un-brigged.
Step 4: Make it to the end of the game because you brigged all the bad guys.
Step 5: Develop thick skin because your friends are mad at you now. Continue brigging them every time you play until they tell you you're not allowed to play Tigh anymore.
Step 6: Start playing equally-trolly expansion characters like Cally until they let you play Tigh again.
As usual, I'm the exact opposite. It does everything well that Tales fails miserably at, which is pretty much everything.
Pretty much always jump when you are risking only 1 population. Crisis cards are what kill you, and the more often you jump the less you see.
The best way to hurt the good guys as a Cylon while still laying low usually isn't to throw negative cards into a check, that usually gets you busted. Instead you are usually better off spending too many resources on an unimportant check and therefore leaving yourself unable to help on later important checks. Try not to make it too obvious though. I only start spiking checks if I plan to reveal very soon.
As the good guys it is totally valid to intentionally fail crisis cards by having no one play cards into them in order to save resources for a later, more important check.
Executive Order is pretty much the most important card in the entire game. Play it on the President so they can use their location for massive card farming. Play it on a fighter pilot to smash some raiders. Play it on Helo to kill some centurion boarding parties, etc. Play it all the damn time. And of course, as a Cylon trick a player into using it on you before your own turn in order to do something bad, reveal, get your turn and do another bad thing. That kind of triple tap can win games.
After a few games of the base Machi Koro you'll realize there is only a few (maybe only one) optimal build for maximum $TEXAS.
The harbor expansion and the fan-community-derived alternative market layout will improve on this.
Game is very fun, and leans on the Hitler thing a lot less than I thought it would. It is essentially Avalon/Resistance with tweaks (that I think improve the game significantly) but the general structure is the same.
Also, the production value is on point. The game definitely nails the 30s feel, with nice wooden placards for the President and Chancellor, nice cardboard policy tokens, and great board and very nice art for the cards.
Never play cards with value 1 into a check. Well, actually, never play cards at all into a check if you can con the other players into doing it for you. That way you will have cards and they won't, so you'll be in a stronger position no matter who ends up on what team. :P
Seriously though, hang onto those 1 value cards. Things will have costs of discarding cards at some point, and it's better to have those 1s to discard rather than cards with actual value. Also, if you play cards with value 1, it can really confuse the value of your contribution - if you play three 1s into a check, it looks like you're helping a lot, so other people will be inclined to play less, but actually you haven't done that much, so the check might fall short. Even if you make use of the rule that you can say whether the cards you're playing are "big" or "small" (and you should, IMO), the difference between three 1s and three 2s is 3 points, so saying "three small cards" is ambiguous. Whereas if you say "one large card" and the other players estimate your contribution as 4, they'll be wrong by at most 1 point.
Investigative Committee wins games, especially in the base game (in the Pegasus expansion, they issued replacement Investigative Committee cards that are nerfed, but it's still really good). IC isn't just good for dissuading people from playing bad cards into checks, it lets the team dial in exactly how much they want to contribute to a check, so it's less likely the team goes way over or under the target.
If you're amazing at counting cards, sometimes you can figure out what cards Destiny is likely to have added to a check, and then on a future check you can work out whether it's likely that Destiny is going to help or hurt the check. A much easier thing to do is keep a count of how many cards of each color have come up negative during one pass through the destiny deck - if one or two red cards come up negative during a pass through the deck, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but if three red cards come up during a single pass through the destiny deck, even if they're on different checks, you know that one of your pilots is a Cylon. And obviously, if 3+ cards come up negative on a single check, you know that someone who played into the check is a Cylon, so think about who played how many cards into that check, and what colors they draw - maybe you can narrow it down to one or two suspects!
eta: as mentioned above, Executive Order wins or loses games. Try your best not to Executive Order the person immediately after you in the turn order if you can help it (so they can't do bad stuff and reveal as a Cylon and then take a Cylon turn all at once). Once all of the Cylons have been revealed, XO people with abandon - generating extra actions is very powerful, especially for locations like Press Room, President's Office, Command, or Armory (when applicable).
Oh, another BSG 101 thing: as a group, come to a consensus about whether it's worth attempting a skill check and who's going to contribute how much before anyone starts playing any cards. If one player throws some cards in and everyone else says they can't or don't want to help, that's a huge waste. Decide first!
Also, if anyone from the old list ( @ChaosHat @ArcSyn @JonBob @iguanacus @Drascin @mysticjuicer @The Mantiz ), just PM me your updated list and any comments on the games themselves.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I got to try a very interesting old boardgame at the convention over the weekend.
It's called Acquire and was apparently published in 1962. Despite ot being from an era of boardgames I associate with games like Monopoly, it is hugely popular at the convention, running a tournament with a ~30 person turnout.
It is a very simple game rules wise with interesting player driven interactions, in many ways it feels before its time. Every turn you play one of the six hotel tiles from your hand to its designated location on the board and then buy up to 3 hotel stocks. Stock price scales based on the tier of the hotel and how many buildings are in its chain. If you linked two tiles together you can make found a hotel chain from the pool of 7 and get one bonus free stock. If you link two hotel chains together, the larger chain buys out the smaller chain. If you have the most or second most of the smaller chains stock you get a cash bonus. Then you can either sell that stock off at its current rate, trade it at 2 for 1 for stock in the company doing the buying out, or hold on to it. The bought chain returns to the available pool and can be founded again. At the end of the game you get paid out for all your stocks based on their current chain values and the player with the most money wins.
So early game you are trying to get stocks in smaller companies and trying to get bought out to get cash injections but late game you want a ton of stocks in the largest chain, but as chains get bigger it becomes more and more expensive to get stock in them, and so on.
It's shockingly elegant for a game from the 60s and the guy running the tournament said the game can be had for like $5 at swap meets and the like. The dude had like 20+ copies.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Also got to play a 2P Scythe for the first time last night. It was intense, but Rusviet started with the board that lets them Produce directly into Upgrade and I (Crimea) was on the back foot for most of the game after they spent six of their first eight turns doing just that. I managed to rally with a two-star turn (enlisting my 4th ally and using it's power boost to max out) and it was a race to see who could place their 6th but Rusviet gambled on an encounter enabling one of his objectives and it paid off, although at the cost of knocking them out of the upper popularity bracket so I wasn't crushed quite so badly. Mostly I lost to territories, as I believe the score there was like 11 to 7 and those 12 points were basically the difference.
Only filthy robots use a next-O. Are you a robot? No? Then don't XO the next player.
State of Emergency when you and the next player are both robots is totally legit, though. Oh no I had no idea!
I don't ever remember seeing Acquire in stores when I was younger and even now I don't think I've seen it anywhere. Maybe it's a regional thing. When I was younger all the department stores stocked Milton Bradley and Parker Bros, as well as all the hit or miss kid games. Never have played it. Sounds neat though, I'd be curious how it plays compared to some of the more recent stock market style games.
Say, @Astaereth , were you able to play the game with the optional expansion villagers from Islebound? I was reading some reviews this morning and they said it really changes up the gameplay and some people who had written the base game off changed their minds. I haven't found any specifics on exactly what it does yet tho.
I've never played Othello either, actually.
The mission we played last night was Means of Production and like...it took him 3 turns to get out of the starting area. This is after we implemented a designer approved house rule that if you fail two story missions in a row, you still get all the win rewards. I buffed the health of a door from 6 to 9 and well..that was that?
Edit: Oh snap , I ALSO love Acquire. The latest edition is nice and affordable too (the previous was a lot of plastic).
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Something is going critically wrong if it took that long to get through the first door on Means of Production. That mission is short enough that it's kinda formulaic:
Turn 1: whittle down starting forces, stack up in front of first door
Turn 2: open first door, move to second door
Turn 3: open second door, and start moving towards third door
Turn 4: finish moving to third door, open it
Turn 5: win
Unfortunately, if the rebel player is having a bad time now, it's going to be even worse now that the Imperial player has Imperial Industry. Stuns for days
In my experience, robots don't play Executive Orders ever, because most of the other players are humans, and why would you help a filthy human? :P
We have one gal who, when she comes up a Cylon, is deeply committed to pretending to be human for as long as it's remotely plausible - and even after that, on occasion. She'll do that kind of thing. It can be very frustrating if you happen to be the other Cylon, but does sometimes set up a late-game "and now you're boned" scenario pretty nicely.